Rene Magritte’s “Son of Man” piece is the inspirational work of art for my multimedia video project. This piece has a surreal and strange feeling to it. The images are painted very realistically, but the placement of the objects throws the viewer off. In “Son of Man” you can almost fully see the subjects eyeball beneath the apple, which gives the viewer some sense of normalcy, while at eth same time creating an eerie effect. This piece affected me by revealing how discomfort comes so easily when something is out of place.
My video extrapolates on the theme of displacement. The subject of the video is going through his normal morning routine, which is analogous to the subject in the painting wearing very normal and recognizable attire. The displacement of objects throughout his morning routine doesn’t seem strange to the subject, but it’s very strange to the viewer. In the way that Magritte’s piece is painted in a realistic style, I made the video as simple and real life as I could. Yet the specific objects and actions made everything surreal. In researching Magritte, I discovered that he does not like to give meaning to his pieces, or at least he doesn’t like to let the viewer in on the hidden meaning. In his piece, a man is just standing by a wall outside with an
enlarged apple over his face. It could be as simple as that, or as complex as the viewer makes it out to be. I extended this theme into my video as well, giving the viewer something strange to chew on, but not lending them any obvious hints as to an overarching deeper meaning.
My video extrapolates on the theme of displacement. The subject of the video is going through his normal morning routine, which is analogous to the subject in the painting wearing very normal and recognizable attire. The displacement of objects throughout his morning routine doesn’t seem strange to the subject, but it’s very strange to the viewer. In the way that Magritte’s piece is painted in a realistic style, I made the video as simple and real life as I could. Yet the specific objects and actions made everything surreal. In researching Magritte, I discovered that he does not like to give meaning to his pieces, or at least he doesn’t like to let the viewer in on the hidden meaning. In his piece, a man is just standing by a wall outside with an
enlarged apple over his face. It could be as simple as that, or as complex as the viewer makes it out to be. I extended this theme into my video as well, giving the viewer something strange to chew on, but not lending them any obvious hints as to an overarching deeper meaning.